Which words were born with you?

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Emoji, bitcoin, microblogging, cloud computing, cyber attack, social media: in our daily life, we use many words that were mostly unknown just a few years ago, but which are now almost universally understood and have effortlessly become part of our ordinary conversations. In fact,  linguistic inventions often derive from new habits or jobs, developing alongside the evolution of society, collective phenomena, new inventions and technologies.

 

word-born

Did you ever wonder what words first came into use when you came into the world?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary has developed a special Time Traveler which allows you to look back in time and check what words entered the dictionary the year you were born.
Moreover, on November 2012 TermCoord hosted a seminar dealing with language changes and birth of new terms in the 21st century: you can find more information about it here.
Are you curious about finding which word were born the same year as you? Check it out here, and leave us a comment!

 


Sources:

  • Merriam-Webster Dictionary, official website, available here  (accessed on 20/11/17)
  • Wonderopolis.org, How Do Words Get Added To the Dictionary?, available here (accessed on 20/11/17)

 

Written by Carolina Quaranta – Schuman Trainee at the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament. Student of Master in Public and Political Communication in the University of Torino, Italy; journalist.